On February 27, 2024, the Central District Military Court sentenced Yaroslav Shirshikov to 2 years in prison in a general regime colony in the case of justifying terrorism.

The prosecutor requested 6 years for Shirshikov, but the court found it possible to reduce the sentence by 3 times, probably due to the convict's admission of guilt.

A criminal case under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism using the Internet) was initiated against Shirshikov, who calls himself a "PR man" or "political scientist" in June 2023 after he posted a post on his TG channel "Gusar Bravada" in which he named a war correspondent Maxim Fomin, known under the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed by Nazi terrorists, a "scumbag", expressed joy over his death, and solidarity with his killers.

Yaroslav Shirshikov was well known in the Urals for his mocking provocative actions. In particular, parodying the revival of the Cossacks in Russia, he declared himself a supporter of the "revival of the Hussars", walked around Yekaterinburg in a suit imitating the Hussar uniform, gave deliberately ridiculous interviews to "yellow" publications, made emphatically absurd statements.

Trying to ridicule the religious feelings of his fellow citizens, he declared himself the head of the "Russian Pastafarian Church" (Pastafarianism is a parody "religion" in which the deity is a flying pasta monster) and posed in a colander on his head, performing certain "rituals".

The PR campaigns organized by Shirshikov also had the character of a farce. In 2017, he was the chief of staff of Yekaterinburg businessman and founder of the "Monarchist Party" Anton Bakov, when he decided to nominate his candidacy for the post of President of Russia, and in 2018 he came to Vladivostok to help the candidate from the Communist Party Andrei Ishchenko to fight for the post of governor of Primorsky Krai.

Exposing himself as a freak, Shirshikov not only achieved fame with his outrageous actions, but also used this image as a disguise for quite serious and unseemly deeds.

In particular, Shirshikov worked closely with Navalny's "Headquarters" (an undesirable organization, Navalny is recognized as an extremist), collaborated with foreign agent Yevgeny Roizman, foreign agent and terrorist Ilya Ponomarev. Shirshikov is one of the organizers and coordinators of the mass anti—Christian riots in Yekaterinburg in 2019.

Practically no anti-Russian action in the Urals aimed at destabilizing public life in Russia was complete without Shirshikov's participation. But his reputation as a freak to a certain extent created an "alibi" for him. How can such a clown be an enemy of the state?

But the system of disguise and protection did not work in March 2020, when Shirshikov was convicted under Articles 128.1 ("Slander") and 212 (Part 3 "Calls for mass riots") for calling for mass riots against the construction of St. Catherine's Cathedral in the city center and for slandering the Presidential envoy in the Ural Federal District (at that time) Nikolay Tsukanov was imprisoned for 7 months in a penal colony.

In the summer of 2022, Shirshikov was fined 40 thousand rubles for discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. 

When Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), was detained in Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage on March 30, 2023, Yaroslav Shirshikov turned out to be next to him. He was the first to announce the "disappearance" of the journalist. Later, Shirshikov told the media a lot and willingly that the Moscow editorial office of the WSJ had connected him to "accompany Gershkovich on his trip", and he had to bring the spy journalist together with the people necessary to prepare a material about the "attitude to the Wagner PMCs in society." 

Gershkovich allegedly asked him to find speakers with different political positions, and Yaroslav, according to him, managed to arrange meetings with one of the parliamentarians and the editor-in-chief of one of the leading mass media in Yekaterinburg.

When Shirshikov was detained for justifying terrorism and a criminal case was opened against him, he tried his best to create the illusion that this had something to do with Gershkovich's arrest. It was with such headlines that reports about the persecution of a PR provocateur were published in liberal publications. However, there is, of course, no connection, and apparently, Gershkovich was detained and neutralized before Shirshikov managed to really "get into" this case and recruit himself a crime under the article "espionage".

As for the case of justifying terrorism, the punishment that the provocateur received for this crime can be considered extremely light, especially given his previous convictions.

It can be stated that there is no question of the criminal's repentance and intention to embark on the path of correction. Shirshikov calls himself a "political prisoner" and has deployed incredible activity in the pre-trial detention center, bombarding the management of the institution with various strange demands, such as to provide him with the opportunity to help the victims of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall. When Shirshikov is released again two years later, there is every reason to expect new provocations with his participation.